The Wutz Up in the Philippines!

President Gloria Arroyo sits with Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao (right), Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak (left) and Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong (third from left) during the 15th Association of Southeast Asian Nations Summit in Hua Hin, Thailand on Sunday.

For domestic industries to fully recover from damages caused by typhoons Ondoy and Pepeng, the Federation of Philippine Industries (FPI) said that the government must invoke an article of the Asean

Trade in Goods Agreement (ATIGA) that would temporarily exempt the country from the zero-tariff regime beginning next year under the Asean Free Trade Area-Common Effective Preferential Tariff (AFTA-CEPT) scheme.

In a statement over the weekend, FPI added that in a letter it sent to President Gloria Arroyo last week, the group appealed that the Philippines immediately invoke Article 23 of ATIGA, or the “Temporary Modification or Suspension of Concessions,” citing the “extreme circumstances resulting from the devastation of the recent national calamities.”

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For the first time, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo openly lashed out at critics over her supposedly excessive travel expenses, insisting that her trips abroad were necessary for national security as well as the protection of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs).

In a radio interview aired Thursday morning, President Arroyo dared her critics to see for themselves the consequences of withdrawing the country’s policy of global engagement.

“Kaya ang hamon ko sa ating critics: Sige mag-withdraw tayo sa global engagement. Gusto ba natin na less ang economic growth, gusto ba natin less ang national security, gusto ba natin na less ang protection sa OFW (I challenge my critics to see what happens if we withdraw our global engagement. Do we want less economic growth, less national security and less protection for OFWs)?” she said in an interview on dzXL radio.

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Decision comes on heels of controversial dinners.

MANILA, Philippines—Under fire for expensive dinners in New York and Washington, D.C., President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has decided to forgo plans to purchase a new presidential jet to the tune of P1.2 billion.

“I’m formally announcing that the President has ordered the cancellation of the purchase of a presidential jet,” Press Secretary Cerge Remonde said at his weekly media forum aired on the government-run Radyo ng Bayan.

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But analysts say Cory’s death spells trouble.

SASMUAN, PAMPANGA — President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo did not feel threatened by the multitudes of people who had gathered for the burial of former President Corazon Aquino on Wednesday, a Malacañang official said here on Thursday.

Analysts, however, say the resurgence of the “people power” movement after the death of Aquino has damaged her political foe, Ms Arroyo.

“We have nothing to be threatened [about],” said the President’s deputy spokesperson, Lorelei Fajardo. “We’re happy to see that our people have shown their support and love for our nation again and that’s a good sign.”

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Church authorities Sunday advised President Arroyo to ditch the issue of Charter Change (Cha-cha) in her State-of-the-Nation Address (SONA) Monday, saying that the public has rejected constitutional amendment repeatedly in the past.

Caloocan Bishop Deogracias Iniguez, head of the public affairs committee of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), said Mrs. Arroyo should instead focus on providing solutions to the problems plaguing the country.

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If being blessed by the Catholic Church is determined by numbers, then President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has got it.

With reliable supporters in the Church hierarchy, Arroyo has had an easier time than her two predecessors when it comes to church-state relations.

It could be that she is a woman and a devout Catholic, like former President Aquino, that bishops tend to be kinder, or more tolerant of her.

Previous presidents Fidel Ramos and Joseph Estrada clashed with the Catholic Church, specifically Manila Archbishop Jaime Cardinal Sin. From population control programs to Charter change to moral issues, the bishops used the pulpits in criticizing Ramos and Estrada.

But when it came to Arroyo, the sermons were rather muted.

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Five days before her last State of the Nation Address (SONA), President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo ordered the Armed Forces of the Philippines Thursday to stop its offensives against the Moro Islamic Liberation Front rebels in a bid to restart peace talks, a move welcomed by the guerrillas.

Talks with the MILF broke down last year, when the government accused the rebels of launching attacks on several villages in Mindanao after the Supreme Court threw out a preliminary peace deal.

Chief government negotiator Rafael Seguis said Mrs. Arroyo’s order is aimed at providing a conducive atmosphere for the resumption of talks.

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Less than two weeks before her presumably last State of the Nation Address, President Arroyo faces stagnant dissatisfaction ratings, according to the latest SWS poll, with discontent on the rise in urban areas, traditionally a hotbed of the opposition.

SWS’s second-quarter survey on the public’s satisfaction with President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo remains “bad” at -31, but when broken down the negative rating reveals more than meets the eye.

Pollster Social Weather Stations (SWS) said in an article posted on its Web site that the President’s dissatisfaction rating actually dropped in rural areas, but the gain was offset by a notable rise in discontent among people in urban centers.

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